I owe $5,500 on the last credit card with a substantial basis. I don't want to pay it off, could I settle for something like a lump sum of $2,500-2,700? I guess I could keep paying twice my monthly minimum, knocked off 4k over the last year or so. But if no one wants to pay their bills, I don't want to either. Seriously, that post is only a little sarcastic, and not at all a dig towards the OP who is having troubles right now.
Sorry to dethread. Question for astro99... I am getting daily voicemails left from collection companies seeking the last owner of the cell# that was reassigned to me. I really, really like to keep the new assigned number and do not want to request for a new number from my cell provider. However daily voicemails are left every day and it is becoming more of a hassle to delete them. If I call the collections agency and ask them to put my cell # to their 'Do Not Call List' , how long can that take and will that even work? Someone told me that robotic, system voice mails may not apply to the Do Not Call List rules?
It's not that you have something to hide and fear it, it's the fact that audits cost time and money. More important, you have to realize two things: the first is that rarely do you have a taxpayer who keeps every single receipt. It's just not feasible. An audit puts them at risk of losing deductions, depending on the auditor. The other is that audits are no longer treated as just a means of ensuring compliance, but rather, a means to generate more revenue. The newer breed of auditors we're seeing look at denials of deductions as a method of revenue generation. I know people like to bag on the government and government employees in general, but understand that the IRS is getting much smarter, and much better at it's job (collecting taxes). These auditors come in, look for anything they can deny so they can walk out with an adjustment in their favor. Any amended return that creates additional liability, I recommend being amended. But for the ones wanting to amend to a get a couple hundred dollars extra refund, I do advise against it for the reasons above. If the changes are significant and material, we always amend regardless if it's a refund or tax due.
Wow, you really hate people who have money. You only appear in threads about money and your posts are always the same, predictable, nonsense and you have no idea how an economy works. You must really have a miserable life because every time you see someone with a nice car or a Rolex on it probably ruins your entire day.
I keep every receipt and accurate records for everything I claim on my taxes. Why isn't it feasible? In this day and age of technology, it is quite simple to scan a receipt into a folder on a computer and have a record of every financial transaction you make. Considering he gets paid 44 cents a mile, accurate records should already exist in this particular instance, otherwise his company wouldn't have paid him. You can't live your financial life fearing an audit and NOT claiming valid deductions or amending a return on the off chance you MAY get audited. Are you a CPA?
Is the account at a collection agency or still w/ the credit card company? I can't tell you what they will or won't take because this depends on a ton of factors such as: who the creditor is, how long you've owed it, your income/assets, your expenses, etc. If you give me some background info I can probably give you a good idea. To be quite honest, your income and expenses don't matter that much, UNLESS you've already told them. They're much more willing to work with you if your struggling but if they know you have $, then they will try to get it. This is where assets come in, because they can literally look at whatever.. If you own a nice car or something, there not going to take 50%. But without knowing of that, this is my assessment. You owe 5500 and want to pay 2500- 2700 (45-49%). Have you tried offering it yet? If this is the highest your absolutely willing to pay, I'd try offering 33% or so and saying thats absolutely all you have, make up some stories and bla bla bla. Don't let them know your real income, etc. At the same time, I said i've closed deals less than this, but on average I probably did settlements at like 50-60%. This mostly depends on the creditor. They have a certain % that they will take, and anything less, requires approval. If its 70%, then usually anything 55% or above will get approved. With that being said, I also stated earlier that at the end of the month is when your much much more likely to get a good deal. If you make an offer now, it will likely require approval, and could get dragged out til the end of the month..So to make a long post short, if you're looking to put this behind quickly, I'd pay a little bit more, 60% or so (even 55% might get it done quick), and you can put this behind you fast. If you're okay with dragging it out for a while, you might get lucky with 45-49%, just play you're cards right and make sure your story adds up, as I said before- they might require you to submit documents for proof. Anyways, if you give me some more background info I could probably help out a bit more. Also, all this is how it works once its reached the collection agency. Although I know most of how it is while its in the collections dpt of the credit card companies works the same way, but just throwing that out there. Hope I was able to help
Also, just making it clear, the point of offering 33% is so that they counter with 50% or something. If you've already offered 45-49% they are going to want higher now, so if you haven't just offer low and they should come up to the 45-49% your willing to pay
Lol honestly depends on how bad you want that #, I'd say your better off switching #s..but here are your routes. 1) If you call each one and say wrong # , do not call me, remove me, etc etc..They're required to do so. I know theres a window of days they have until they can get in trouble (i think 7-10 days), but after that if they call you, they can get sued. But this is why I think its pointless. A person in debt likely doesnt just owe 1 creditor money, he owes quite a few creditors..It'd be a pain to tell each and everyone to stop calling you, keep track of who you said that too, and make sure you dont. 2) This is like route 1, but better. Do the same thing except send a letter to each one in writing, in certified mail, so you have proof. So basically, if you tell them to stop, they have to..but will they? I dont know, probably not, especially since its numerous collection agencies. Do your really want to go through the trouble? If you want it that bad, go for it. As for the robotic voicemail..if you don't pick up, and they keep calling, and get a robotic voicemail, then yes, they're allowed to..But if you tell them its a wrong #, they're required to stop. I would try telling them its the wrong # and see if they really stop. If you have a friend lawyer or someone who would send out legal letters for cheap/free, you could get it done 10x faster. Infact, if you have proof that you told them to stop calling you and they did again (it has to be the SAME collection agency) you could even get $ out of it..but IMO, its not worth the headache if your getting a ton of calls.
